Occupational and personal factors contributing to participation in occupational health promotion programs for employees in nursing home facilities: a secondary analysis of the PROCARE study

Background Nursing staff are exposed to demanding occupational conditions, including physical load, physiological stress and negative institutional factors that are associated with job turnover and unhealthy behavior, health complaints (such as back pain), and other issues. Occupational health promotion programs, such as ergonomics and exercise, are offered to counteract these unfavorable trends, but participation is often low. However, knowledge about factors favoring or reducing the participation of nursing staff in occupational health promotion programs in nursing home settings remains incomplete. Given this limited and inconclusive evidence, this study followed an exploratory approach for the participation analysis. Methods This cross-sectional secondary analysis explored potential predictors that may be associated with participation in tailored occupational health promotion programs in nursing home facilities. We analyzed multicenter data of nurses ( n = 310) from 47 nursing homes invited to participate in tailored occupational health promotion programs (PROCARE study). We focused on reasons for (non-)participation, including occupational and individual factors and conducted a logistic regression analysis to examine the potential predictors associated with nurses’ participation in occupational health promotion programs. Results The findings suggested that a better relationship with colleagues (workplace environment) (OR = 0.569; CI [0.360 0.899]) and a higher physical activity level (individual health behavior) (OR = 0.525; CI [0.328 0.842]) were associated with a higher likelihood of participation in occupational health promotion programs. Conclusions We identified possible predictors associated with participation, such as the work environment and the individual health behavior, that could be considered during the planning and implementation of occupational health promotion programs. Future programs might consider a linkage to individuals’ health behavior change strategies and address the relationship to colleagues. This tailoring could be particularly relevant to support employees’ participation in occupational health promotion programs in the implementation phase. Trial registration The PROCARE study was registered with the German Register of Clinical Trials (DRKS.de; DRKS00015241).